1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an incision instrument for making an incision in an organ and to an incision apparatus that incorporates the incision instrument, and also to an organ incision method.
2. Description of Related Art
When performing a procedure on an organ in a human body, a laparoscopic operation is known in which, a procedure is performed by opening a plurality of perforations in the abdominal wall and by inserting a rigid laparoscope or a treatment instrument such as forceps in each of the perforations, instead of making a large incision in the abdominal wall. Because only a small perforation needs to be opened, the method has the advantages that there is little invasiveness and the recovery of the patient is rapid.
In addition, in recent years, a method of reducing the degree of invasiveness to a patient even further has been proposed in which a procedure is performed by inserting an endoscope into a natural orifice such as the mouth, nose, or anus of a patient. An example of this type of medical procedure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,131. A flexible endoscope is inserted via the mouth of a patient who has undergone insufflation. Next, a perforation that is large enough to allow an endoscope to be inserted is formed in the abdominal wall, and the endoscope is sent forward into the body cavity through the perforation.
The endoscope is used for monitoring the interior of the body cavity. An organ is then treated using a treatment instrument that is passed through the endoscope or using a treatment instrument that is passed through another perforation opened in the stomach or a perforation opened in the sigmoid colon through the anus. Once the procedure inside the body cavity has been completed, the treatment instrument is withdrawn and the perforations are closed. In order to close the perforations, the tissue surrounding each of the perforations is suctioned so as to be bunched up and the tissue is then fastened using an O-ring.